posted on August 23, 2010 10:46:00 AM new
Grocery store eggs..mmmmmmmmm!
1200+ people sick in 10 states. Half a billion eggs recalled, the guy at the center of the storm is a complete sleazeball and animal abuser. This country's food system is just plain scary. Anyone who thinks they're getting safe food from the Piggly Wiggly is a fool. It's only a matter of time until the bad guys figure out just how many of us they can kill by injecting some good bio-weapons into our food supply streams. I'm surprised it hasn't already happened.
The shortened link below is to an article titled "5 Books to Read After You Check Your Egg Cartons", or something like that. I've read them all. I'd suggest everybody read them.
posted on August 23, 2010 01:03:16 PM new
Once at the checkoutof an Asian supermarket,I saw some duck eggs for sale,so I bought some.
I boiled some and open one,I saw the head of a duckling !
It turns out these are half hatched eggs prized by Southeast Asians like Philipinos and Vietnamese for their hormone and they eat them raw!
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 24, 2010 06:32:19 AM new
I think I prefer ignorance. I don't farm and won't be farming anytime soon - so if I want to eat (and I definitely want to eat)I'm pretty much at the mercy of the country's food system.
hwahwa - that duckling story was truly horrible. Was it a long time before you could eat eggs again?
posted on August 24, 2010 11:44:55 AM new
No,I have no problem once I understand what they are for.
I heard some Asians really eat them,it is the growth hormone they are after.
you heard at one time drug co wants to harvest aborted foetus for its growth hormone or is it stent cell research?
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 24, 2010 05:23:27 PM new
Cherished...I'm with you. I really don't want to know where some of my food comes from anymore! The world is becoming a scary place.
I am just glad that my DH and I do not eat eggs! On the odd occassion I bake and do use eggs for that but this gives me an excuse not to bake for a while.
They say 'Ignorance is bliss' so I think I will remain very 'blissful"
posted on August 25, 2010 06:13:15 AM new
Some one is recalling deli meat sold to Walmart to make 'grab and go' sandwich.
Deli meat,cilantro,leeks,green onion,ground beef,farm raised cat fish,salmon,scallops loaded with antibiotics and hormone?
What is left to eat?
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 25, 2010 09:01:23 AM new
HWAHWA...if I had seen a little Duck's head looking up at me from an egg I think I would have fainted. Yukk.. Although as I am short and always wanted to be tall, the growth hormone may have helped me! ( Just kidding)
You are right,there is not much left to eat, we have shellfish harvesting closures right now due to red tide but at least that is a natural phenomena. I try to buy local veggies and have found it very easy to grow salad fixings in containers on my patio.
I don't each much meat and try to buy local fish but it is so expensive.
My first husband was a Butcher and would not let our kids eat prepared deli meats as he knew what was in them! The only time they ate a Hot Dog was when they were at another kids Birthday Party. That was in the late 1960's so it is not a new problem but it is more widely publicised now.
In the past I think people became ill from eating some foods but now we have more stringent testing methods so the cause can be pinned down very quickly and made public.
posted on August 25, 2010 04:15:55 PM new
CBS is reporting that recalled, contaminated eggs will be processed to use in other products sold in grocery stores.
"Once you've taken the action to klill the bacteria, then it's fine to put it into these other products," said Michael Hansen of the Consumers Union. "So I wouldn't be worried about eating a pasteurized egg product that came from these recalled eggs."
posted on August 25, 2010 08:13:40 PM new
Back in the old days,there is no mass production,chicken dinner is a big deal,during the cultural revolution,someone was accused of eating a whole hard boiled egg all by herself hiding in the barn.
Someone was accused of sashaying down the street in a red skirt,for some reason red dye is scarcer than say black or gray or navy blue.
Few know how to prepare a whole chicken,they have seen it in restaurant and roast chicken is something you dont try at home as you dont have an oven,only restaurants do.
During the cultural revolution,adults are rationed 1/2 yard of cotton per year and 20 ounces of meat per month.
Now the Chinese have all you can eat buffet,and they like western wine and they like the idea of eating with knife and fork.
AKA They are getting fat like us!
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 26, 2010 10:33:20 AM new
Intentionally remaining ignorant of your food sources is certainly a great way way to protect yourself. "I hope it's not contaminated" "I hope it's not contaminated" "I hope it's not contaminated" "I hope it's not contaminated" "I hope it's not contaminated"
Sorta like banging sticks together to keep the bears away. Our food production and distribution system is broken, and it's going to take the market to fix it. There is growing demand for local, organic and humanely produced food. Even WalMart is getting into the act in a big way and when WalMart is willing to go that direction, it's certain they've seen a sea-change in peoples' attitudes. As long as people want the cheapest possible prices, out of season foods available year round, and don't care how their food was raised and handled before it got all prettied up and wrapped in plastic, this system will continue to chug along, poisoning people. You don't have to be a farmer to get fresh local eggs, meat, cheese and produce.There are community supported agriculture programs and other outfits like Bountiful Baskets Co-op all over the country. You just have to be willing to look a bit and establish relationships that go beyond the local Super Mega Cheapo Mart. Too busy? Too busy for SAFE FOOD? If you're too busy for healthy food, you're TOO busy and ought to slow down.
I'm amazed frankly that EColi and Salmonella have so far been the only things to hit our food system. Those eggs went out to a bunch of states, and tracing them was fairly hard to do. Imaging what a creative terrorist could do with a little knowledge of how ground meat is bulk processed and mixed with the meat of cattle from all over the country and packed into those delightful giant chubby plastic cylinders that you see on sale all the time in the supermarkets. You know the ones, they have the colorful labels that prevent you from even SEEING the "meat" inside. MMMMM...buck seventy nine a pound, let's have a COOKOUT!!
We'll all breathe a big sigh of relief now, we weren't among the 3000 people who got sick and the bad old chicken farmer who let rats get into his feed bins has been caught. I'm sure not EVERY egg producer is like him. NO, he must have been an EXCEPTION. Aren't there people who INSPECT for us?? Isn't the government supposed to ensure our food is SAFE?
Yep, they are. That's why they're going to let all those tainted eggs be returned, pasteurized and resold as Mayo and other egg containing products. SAFETY FIRST!
I'll have mine nice and runny please, because I know where they came from.
/end rant/
posted on August 26, 2010 12:53:20 PM new
In general, I'm not surprised by your reaction to the preference to remain ignorant. But there is just one part of the rant's I truly don't get.
If I buy local produce or eggs, which I probably could - honestly haven't looked for any locally produced eggs. I know that there are fruit and vegetable stands, farmer's markets etc. in the area during our growing season.
But really, what reason is there for me to think that the local farmer (that I don't know) is any more sanitary (no rats, etc.) in his growing practices than the big farmer (that I also don't know).
posted on August 26, 2010 02:09:39 PM new
how do you know the small farmer is any better than the corporation that is farming eggs?
if you don't put any effort into finding out, you don't know - but at least you CAN talk to the local farmer if you want to. there's a good chance you can even drive out and check out your local farmers operation, which isn't something you can do with the big guys.
posted on August 26, 2010 07:51:46 PM new
I think we all want more for less,we like shrimp and we want to eat a lot of shrimp,so imported shrimp show up,how do we know where they are caught,Indian fresh water shrimp and Vietnamese cat fish?
I see quick frozen fish from China and they are not cleaned,so you take them home and defrost them,wont the bacteria in the stomach foul up the fish??
We like sushi,in Japan it takes 15 years for a restaurant worker to become a sushi chef from making deliveries to making rice and peeling cucumber skin,he can tell if the fish is safe to eat raw,but now we haev frozen sushi in all you can eat buffet,we have sushi from wholesaler delivered to restaurant,no need for a high price chef .
Do you know what is the proper way of cleaning the fish if you are going to serve the meat fresh?
the chef will poke his fingers thru the gills of the fish and pull the guts out,in that way the bacteria would not contaminate the flesh.
I tried it once with a fish with tiny guts,try it someday with your hands!
chicken used t o be such a delicacy,we were grateful to have a piece or two,now we can have the whole 9 yeards,all 13 pieces for ourself.
So how else can they satisfy our appetite,if not using hormone,fertiliser or cheap imports and illegal workers?
Didnt Sizzler restaurant worker use the same knife for cutting meat and cutting water melon and a little girl died?
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 26, 2010 09:46:13 PM new
Vintage4U pretty well answered the question. You develop a relationship with the suppliers of your food and can make your own judgements about their practices. There are no guarantees, but at least you can have some sort of buy-in on your food sources. Take salmonella for example. There are two ways for eggs to be infected. One is from external contamination. Unsanitary eggs that have feces on their shells that either the producer or the consumer hasn't washed off. The other, more serious and more insidious, is from hens who are internal carriers of the bacterin. These hens have consumed salmonella from their food sources and introduce the disease into their eggs before the shell forms. This is the kind of salmonella that was involved in the recall. An unwashed hen's egg that may have salmonella on it's shell won't necessarily spread the disease to other hens or eggs. Wash the shell before you crack it and cook the egg well and all is good. End of story. Contaminated food in a factory egg facility is another story entirely. Literally tens of thousands of hens are eating the same ration, and they are ALL immediately internalizing the disease, which they are immediately shedding into their eggs before the shells form in the hen's cloaca. Those eggs are then distributed throughout our "modern" food system and end up who knows where. This distribution system magnifies the potential for illness logarithmically. Contamination from small producers is by it's size self limiting.
My hens are free range. Unlike the cartons you see in the grocery store being sold for a buck or more than regular eggs, my eggs really are free range. My chickens don't get any feed at all. Legally, the stuff you see in the market labeled free range only means that chickens are provided the OPPORTUNITY to go outside, which in practice, they Don't Do. Producers have figured out that if you keep chicks inside a giant henhouse for two or three weeks before opening the little trap door at the end of building and giving them the chance to go outside to a tiny patch of grass, they won't go out at all. It simply doesn't occur to them unless they get used to doing it at a very young age. They're chickens after all. Their brains are about as big as your little finger nail. Their eggs can legally be sold as "free range" since they had they opportunity to go outside, even though they didn't actually do it.
True free range hens eat bugs, grass, dig through the ground for seeds and other goodies. Their risk of contamination from nasties is much lower. I get 5 bucks a dozen for my eggs, and can't keep up with the demand for them. I have folks who drive an hour on the weekend to buy eggs. I'm not an egg farmer. I raise horses, sheep, dairy goats and a few grass fed beef cattle. My customers are free to look around, ask questions, even gather eggs and help slaughter their own meat if they've got the stomach for it. Try that at a commercial food producer. If slaughter and poultry houses were required to have glass walls, this would be a nation of vegetabletarians in no time.
posted on August 27, 2010 01:36:18 PM new
Prof.
I have a question for you.
Before Kroger and zillions of new houses are built in my area,there was this ramshackle store run by a Mexican clan who lived behind the store,they have their own little world.
The guy served mexican breakfast to construction workers,then homemade BBQ beef and Mexican goodies and bottle water for lunch,the girls baked cake from Pilsbury or Duncan mix you find in supermarket and sell by the slice.
They dont have too many canned goods or dry goods and just a few cigarettes they buy for resale from Sam's Club.
But they have wonderful fresh brown eggs and they are single yolk,double yolk and triple yolk.
And they taste delicious,you can tell they are fresh.
How do the hens do it,laying triple yolk eggs>
IS IT IN THEIR GENES?
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 27, 2010 09:22:25 PM new
Good question hwa. No, it's not genetic. I'll tell you why it's not in a minute. First, a biology lesson. An egg is a single cell, otherwise known as an ovum. The egg forms first without it's shell and travels down the hen's oviduct where it gets enclosed in the shell shortly before being laid. Once in a while the hen will double ovulate, and two cells get surrounded by one shell. Hence, a double or occasionally a triple yolked egg. This is most common among heavy laying old fashioned breeds, those that lay every day, and it's more commonly found in young hens.
Now here's why it's not genetic. If a double yolked egg were fertile, it would be impossible for two chicks to survive inside one egg. They'd both die. There's not enough room. If this was a genetic trait, it would have died out eons ago, as there'd be no living birds to pass the trait on. It's nothing more than a fairly uncommon happenstance where a hen ovulates more than one egg at a time, in much the same way that a human mother can sometimes double ovulate, causing fraternal twins.
posted on August 27, 2010 09:28:48 PM new
I meant to add, in my experience, all our double yolked eggs that I can remember came from our brown egg laying breeds. I don't recall ever getting a double yolk from any of our white or blue egg layers. That's probably because our brown laying breeds: Rhode Island Reds, Buff and Black Orpingtons are our heaviest layers and produce far more eggs for a longer season than our other chickens. More eggs, more chances for a double yolk.
posted on August 27, 2010 09:47:19 PM new
Thanks for the explanation.
But if you said two eggs cant make it in one egg shell as there is not enough room,but fraternal twins manage to make it in the uterus?
The uterus is actually rather small,yes,it expands but how much to host 3,4,5,6 foetus?
*
There is no 'Global savings glut',only wild horses and loose bankers.
posted on August 28, 2010 06:31:16 AM new
The difference is the mammalian or human fetus is growing in an expandable container. As you know, multiple human births usually result in smaller babies. The same is true for most mammals. The more babies in an individual birth, the smaller they'll be. An egg can't expand at all, and the growing chick needs the entire space within the egg to reach viable size. In addition, the entire yolk is needed to provide food for the growing bird. Multiple yolks aren't big enough to supply adequate nutrition for a chick.
